Today I had to what pet owners hate and try to avoid, I put a dog down.  But that is an oversimplification of what I actually did.  I said goodbye to a good friend.  In fact, I said goodbye to one of my best friends.  

Wiley was nearly 13 when he passed.  Skinny and weak, unable to walk, he was a shadow of his former self.  While he was never really a healthy dog, he was a good one.  He loved to run, play tug of war, and occasionally he would fetch.  His favorite treal was a bone with marrow and maple peanut butter, and he was loyal to a fault. 

As a puppy he would sleep in my bed with me.  When I got married and someone else moved into the bed, he slept on my wife's side to protect her I suppose.  When we had our first child he moved from our room to a spot right in front of the baby's door, swapping posts with our other dog so that the front door was covered too.  

He never bit, never really barked (unless we told him to speak) and never liked to swim.  A trait that is natural to most labrador retrievers.  He preferred the boardwalk to the beach and never lifted his leg to pee.  When confronted with a new dog or someone elses dog, he took it in stride, never really getting too excited, playing it cool.  

Even in his later years, sick with allergies, and tumors, his eyes still showed his soul.  He was an exceptionally gentle being who accepted his plight with elegance and grace.  Brave, strong, and gentle, he was relatively stoic till the end.

In the end, he knew it was time.  His bravery carried over to the veteranarians office where he quitely laid down and accepted that his short life on this planet was over.  In his eyes I could see that he was ready for the next adventure.  The next life.  So, we freed him from his earthly, damaged, body into the ethos and onto a better place.  

So, to my friend, my best friend, I say goodbye.  Godspeed.  Fair winds, following seas, and many maple bones.

Aside from the desire to preserve and protect life and natural resources, I joined the US Coast Guard for another reason.  Unlike the other branches of the military, the USCG didn't pre-assign a rate (aka job/MOS) prior to basic training.  After graduation they put you on a boat .  They encouraged you to experience all that the service had to offer.  And, then they expected you to use that experience to choose a rate (if qualified) that best suited your talents and the service's needs.  This is an extraordinary latent benefit of being a coastie.  You got to meet people from all over, who did every different kind of job.  More importantly you were able to gain a wide angle view of what the service was all about. 

This is in stark contrast to the Air Force or the Army where you are predestined to be a cook, or in the infantry, or even a plumber.  It seemed to me like these services were discouraging curiosity and encouraging a very narrow view of the world.

Now, long since separated and assimlated into "civilian" life, I am often confronted with similar behavior.  I, as you may know, work in the Cable Television industry.  An industry that is not necessarily known for its simplicity or elegance when it comes to its technical configuration or operation.  This is complicated, messy stuff that takes a very large number of people to keep it going.  

I was lucky when I was first hired.  I came right into what is known as the "Headend" or MTC.  This group is responsible for the origination and distribution of every single service that the company offers.  From HBO to Internet.  VOD to Telephone, there wasn't anything that I didn't have my hands in.  This group gave me a second chance at a wide angle or Macro view of the world around me, and I loved it. I was once again granted a look in every window and was able to again apply my talents as needed.  I was shocked then to find out that say an installer didn't share my same view.  His concentration was on the single customer that he was servicing.  A noble deed but that view was very narrow.  This disparity in our focus leads to enormous gaps in behavior, attention, and can even create conflict.

As a person who has a very broad view of the technology and platform around me, I have to take into account that there are others who don't have that luxury.  Just like someone who was predetermined to be a plumber in the Air Force, those who have a very narrow view aren't often granted a view of the whole picture.  That the challenge of everyone who are relegated to say working on network security, is that they often don't have access to how their application affects the rest of the system.  The narrow view approach to operations is more often than not one that will lead to confusion and conflict.

So, this leads me back to my original story.  The gratitude that I have for the USCG and Cox is deeply rooted in the fact that I was granted, early in my life, access to the whole picture.  A picture that I wish everyone could see.  Operating with a narrow or micro view of the world is dangerous to us all.  So, I would encourage anyone, in any industry, to try to examine the world as a whole.  Ignore the narrow view, step back,  and come into a Macro world. The emergence of those existing in a micro enviroment into a macro enviroment can only help to encourage progress and better understanding.

So, I have watched this video about a dozen times, and it keeps getting more and more entertaining.  Mickey Avalon is pretty creepy but, the amount of bonnet in this video more than makes up for it.